10 Oct Seal vs seal
We hear so many epic and entertaining stories from our customers, and this one is no exception. It’s a tale of a seal (diverse family of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, marine mammals) vs a seal (device or substance used to join two things together to prevent anything from passing between them).
Alex Hutton and Meg Clothier bravely set sail from North Devon towards Lundy Island in their Wayfarer ‘Still in Tack’ , having thoroughly planned and prepared, taking all the usual precautions. The outward journey was uneventful, and they duly arrived on Lundy and stayed overnight.
When they returned to their Wayfarer they were amused to see that a seal had chosen to haul itself out of the water and take a nap on the stern.
(Click the play button on top of the video)
Thinking no more than “It’s probably sh@t on my back decks”, they got back onboard and set sail.
Once out in open water, with the chop building a bit, Alex and Meg noticed the boat feeling heavy, and then progressively lower in the water. Some time and 3 capsizes later, they realised something weas seriously wrong and put out a radio Mayday call.
An RNLI lifeboat launched from Appledore and, when requested to, Alex launched a flare (as we said earlier, they were well prepared, though the flare failed to deploy leading to an incident log with the manufacturer). The lifeboat made a valiant attempt to tow Still in Tack, but reluctantly the crew had to cut the rig off and abandon the waterlogged hull off the north Devon coast and take the sailors to shore.
A week later Alex received a report that Still in Tack had washed up on Saunton Sands, and duly made the trip to see what was left of her.
They were surprised to see that the hull was still intact, with relatively little damage to the hull, with parts of the badly damaged, cut rigging still attached.
They recovered her with a trailer, but such was the load that this operation broke the thwart.
On closer inspection, it became clear that the incident was casued by a failed seal, not the marine mammal kind, but a perished hatch seal that the over-nighting seal’s weight had pushed below the waterline, causing the hull to take on water. Such a minor, but actually vitally important item, whose failure had such massive consequences; which save for Alex and Meg being so well prepared, could have been much worse.
We are pleased to say that the hull was easily repairable, and the rig covered by insurance, so Still In Tack is still intact and lives to sail another day!
No Comments